A great deal of attention has been focused on technological development pertaining to phase modulation achieved via liquid crystal elements in recent years. Such efforts have led to, for instance, an invention according to which a transmissive spatial light modulating element is used as an image information source for a digital hologram recording device (see patent literature 1). The publication cited above discloses that the use of a nematic liquid crystal element for purposes for modulating phase and intensity makes it possible to output light without rotating the plane of polarization of a polarized light as an incident light. Also, a liquid crystal phase modulator which is able to modulate a phase independently of polarization state (see non-patent literature 1).